By Gio Annatelli — STAFF WRITER
Just 14 seconds into overtime, Josh Byrne netted his fifth goal of the game to give 12th-ranked Hofstra the 11-10 victory over their longtime foes Princeton at Shuart Stadium on Saturday.
“I’m so proud … I cannot put it into words that do it justice,” Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney said. “We didn’t get off to a great start, they were a little more focused than us, but it did trigger something inside of us.”
The Pride hasn’t beaten the Tigers since 2011. Hofstra improves to 2-0 on the year while Princeton falls to 1-1.
It started at the face-off X, where Brenden Lynch scooped up the loose ball and passed it to long stick midfielder Tanner Griffin. Griffin ran onto the offensive half of the field, passing it to Byrne for the game-winning goal. The Nassau Community College transfer has nine goals and two assists in his first two games with the Pride.
Brian von Bargen tallied two goals on the day, both coming in clutch moments in the fourth quarter. His first put Hofstra up 8-7 just a minute into the final quarter. His second gave the Pride a 10-8 lead. Sam Llinares followed his CAA Player of the Week performance with one goal and one assist. For face-offs, Kris Clarke won 15 of 25 draws, tallying 11 ground balls and his second straight game with an assist.
The Pride defense was held down by defenseman Finn Sullivan, who picked up nine ground balls and caused one turnover. In net, Jack Concannon recorded a career-best 15 saves, including four big saves in the fourth quarter to keep the Pride within the game.
Princeton was led behind Ryan Ambler’s six points on two goals and four assists, while Gavin McBride notched three goals for the Tigers, including the game-tying one with just about four minutes of regulation left.
Princeton jumped out to an early 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Dawson McKenzie, Austin Sims and Ambler, all within the first five minutes of the game. But the Pride wouldn’t let that affect it, as Trevor Kupecky opened the scoring just 20 seconds later.
To close out the quarter, Korey Hendrickson netted his first goal of the year, followed by Byrne’s first of the day.
In the second quarter, it was again Princeton jumping out to a lead as Riley Thompson and McBride found the back of the net to go up two. Goals were then exchanged by Byrne, Bobby Weaver and then Byrne again with 20 seconds left in the half to put the Pride down one.
The third quarter was low scoring, as Dylan Alderman scored for the second straight game to knot it up at six.
Ambler put the Tigers up one with a behind-the-back goal, followed by Llinares scoring from a Clarke feed off the face-off nine seconds after the Princeton goal.
In the fourth, von Bargen gave Hofstra its first lead of the day, with Byrne netting one afterwards to go up 9-7. After McBride scored to close the gap to one, von Bargen struck again to give the Pride another two-goal lead. But the Tigers never gave up, as Weaver scored his second of the day to bring the score to 10-9 and then McBride got the hat trick to tie the game at 10 and send it to overtime.
Hofstra returns to the field Tuesday, March 1, when they take on the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders at James M. Shuart Stadium. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
